953 

F848 

Sai 


Prof.  Of  Geography 
Univ.  Of  California 


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0 


Saint  HuGustine  anb  Waeckel 


EPITOME  OF  HAECKEL'S  "  WORLD  RIDDLES 


Attenuated  jelly  fills  dimension's  every  place 

Nor  cold  nor  warm  nor  palpable  it  coexists  with  space.— 

A  thrill  of  condensation,  and  the  atoms  first  exist. 

They  tend  to  go  on  shrinking,  and  this  protyle  to  resist. 

Thus  force  results  and  shows  itself  by  radiance  and  motion ; 

The  atoms  draw  together  forming  islets  in  the  ocean ; 

The  strain  increases,  heat  ensues,  the  temp'rature's  appalling, 

The  universe  is  flecked  with  matter  boiling,  bursting,  falling, 

When,  following  a  partial  truce,  both  halogen  and  metal 

The  calmer  realms  of  mighty  space  in  loving  couples  settle. 

Still  it  was  hot,  and  none  but  pyrogenic  families  flourished ; 

Volcanoes  were  the  mother's  breasts  that  baby  crystals  nourished. 

Some  million  cycles  went  their  way,  the  angry  clouds  were  riven 

And  other,  cooler,  loving  pairs  appeared  and  were  forgiven. 

First  Carbon,  with  a  harem  such  as  only  chemists  know, 

Began  his  endless  offspring;  followed  soon  by  H20 

Which  floated  from  the  lowering  clouds  that  owed  to  it  their  birth, 

Continuing  the  action  till  it  decked  two-thirds  of  earth ; 

Yet  ere  the  earliest  water  from  its  latent  heat  had  parted 

Had  Carbon,  the  Lothario,  extensive  families  started. 

Anhydrous  carbonates,  so-called,  with  beauty  soft  and  placid, 

Always  prepared  to  fill  a  gap  or  yield  carbonic  acid. 

Our  globe,  the  merest  accident  now  put  a  different  garb  on : 

To  wit,  a  drop  of  water  fell  upon  a  hydro-carbon. 

The  latter  liked  it,  swelled  apace,  and  having  passed  the  spasm, 

Just  multiplied  by  fission, — and  behold  our  protoplasm ! 

Hence  rose  a  progeny  which  needs  ten  thousand  books  to  treat  them 

Of  Plasmodomous  cells,  and  groups  of  Plasmophags  to  eat  them — 

These  Protozoa  (single  cells)  improved  their  opportunities 

By  independent  union  in  Coenobian  communities. 

They  congregated  closely  but  without  connective  tissue. 

By  fission,  spores,  gemmation,  were  produced  their  further  issue. 

Metazoic  federation,  next,  the  simple  cells  annexes, 

And  swaddles  them  in  tissue,  and  divides  them  into  sexes. 

The  Gastrula  with  double  layers  evolves  in  time,  but  slowly ; 

The  bloodless  Coelentaria  of  course  are  the  more  lowly. 

The  Coelomaria  have  blood,  and  cavities,  and  so  forth, 

And  from  these  federated  cells  man's  ancestors  now  go  forth. 

A  little  ball  and  nucleus  of  membraned  protoplasm 

By  vastly  various  products  spans  the  whole  biotic  chasm. 

The  "ego"  of  the  dog  or  man  as  Cytula  is  started, 

Two  cells  and  nuclei  coalesced  with  parents  traits  imparted. 

Not  only  frame  but  soul  results,  a  life  becomes  reality 

Till  cellular  secession  and  its  consequent  mortality. 

The  path  through  earliest  forms  of  life  cannot  be  always  threaded. 

For  plastic  cells  in  solid  rock  can  seldom  be  imbedded. 

So  that  the  first  beginnings  of  incipient  zoology 

Are  reasoned  by  analogy  from  studies  in  ontology. 

Yet,  from  the  close  agreement  of  the  embryonic  stages 

With  the  order  of  succession  during  geologic  ages, 

Analogy  provides  us  with  sufficient  facts  to  go  on 

In  naming  as  our  Adam  a  Laurentian  Protozoon 

Which,  then,  through  worms  and  mollusks  in  a  constant  progress  rises 

Up  to  the  stage  of  vertebrates — the  end  of  all  surmises. 


The  time  was  scarce  Devonian  when  our  predecessors'  wishes 

Were  gratified  by  reaching  this  exalted  state — as  fishes. 

Promotion  followed  slowly:  first  amphibian  tails  and  claws,  ^  *2£f~^? 

Then  Permian  Re pt ilia  with  poison  in  their  jaws.  \ 

Still  higher  rose  our  parent  stock  to  realize  our  dreams  _,. 

Ambitious  to  be  Mammals  they  commenced  as  Monotremes. 

But  this  was  not  sufficient,  and  at  quarter  past  Jurassic 

They  grew  to  be  Marsupials  and  made  that  structure  classic. 

The  hour  was  scarce  Cretaceous  when  from  mammals  elemental 

They  took  the  next  degree  above  and  budded  out  placental. 

Nor  here  did  effort  sleep,  as  once  the  handsome  youth  Endymion, 

But  upward  through  Lemurian  shapes  they  reached  the  form  pro-simian. 

As  Primates  Catarrhinae,  Cynopitheci,  were  passed ; 

Pithecanthropus  alalus  then,  and  speaking  man  at  last. 

So  much  for  our  material  frame,  and  is  it  then  the  whole, 

Or  is  there  left  to  study  the  department  of  the  soul, 

An  immaterial  something  with  our  bodies  but  a  span 

Surviving  as  the  "ego"  the  decaying  trunk  of  man  ? 

How  this  which  was  created  in  the  blastodermic  sphere 

Can  fail  to  share  its  body's  death  is  anything  but  clear. 

In  sound  and  healthy  bodies  its  capacities  are  best, 

Weak  when  the  body  weakens,  vanished  when  it's  laid  to  rest. 

So  close  is  the  connection  of  the  soul  and  its  receptacle 

That  claims  of  life  hereafter  make  unbiassed  thinkers  sceptical. 

The  difference  of  mind  and  soul,  whatever  be  our  leaning, 

Is  difficult  to  formulate  in  words  of  simple  meaning. 

More  difficult,  if  creatures  of  environment  are  we, 

It  is -for  us  to  deem  our  wills  in  any  manner  free. 

The  laws  of  substance  and  of  force,  when  all  is  said  and  done, 
Are  merely  paraphrases,  and  in  point  of  fact  are  one 
We  see  but  one,  embodying  all  the  so-called  Nature's  laws 
To  feeble  human  intellect  the  First  and  Only  Cause. 
That  law  of  substance,  force,  and  soul,  desire,  adaptation 
Which  marks  the  fittest  to  survive,  the  rest  to  transformation. 
Harmonious  with  surroundings  must  be  that  which  would  not  die 
And  better  fitted  things  with  raw  material  supply. 

And  what  are  the  conclusions  we  are  authorized  to  draw  ? 

That  Force,  and  Matter,  Mind,  and  Soul,  but  illustrate  one  law. 

And  is  our  state  the  final  one,  or  shall  we  further  fare, 

No  longer  masticating  food ;  no  longer  growing  hair  ? 

And  shall  we  win  the  mastery  over  every  Cosmic  might  ? 

And  are  we  mere  Automata?    Is  nothing  wrong  or  right? 

Is  then  no  God  Almighty  stretching  out  His  hand  to  save  ? 

Is  there  no  hope  of  heaven  waiting  us  beyond  the  grave  ? 

So  asks  Philosophy  athanatist  and  dualistic 

And  thus  replies  that  other  one  entitled  the  Monistic 

"All  things,  all  thoughts,  all  beings,  every  action  which  is  done, 

"Are  but  the  different  forms  of  The  Existence,  which  is  One." 

The  noble  St.  Augustine  spoke  a  creed  akin  to  this, 

The  Pantheistic  shibboleth,  that  "God  is  that  which  is." 

The  Monist  leader  Haeckel's  view  is  similarly  broad, 

He  turns  the  sentence  merely,  holding — all  that  is  is  God. 

Persifor  Frazer,  April  1902. 

JV&9G67S 


(  Translation) 
ZOOLOGISCHES  INSTITUT 
DER  UNIVERSITAT   JENA 

Jena,  4.  4.  1902. 
Most  honored  Friend  and  Colleague  ! 

For  your  pleasant  letter  of  the  13.  3.  I  give  you  my  heartiest 
thanks,  and  not  less  for  the  fine  poem  in  which  you  have  so  bril- 
liantly glorified  my  "  Weltrathsel" 

Since  the  English  translation  of  this  has  been  spread  in 
America  I  have  received  a  large  number  of  friendly,  and,  in  part, 
inspired,  letters  of  approbation  from  your  Fatherland.  This 
endorsement  pleases  me  especially  because  I  see  in  it  a  good 
sign  for  the  monistic  development  of  the  future. 

I  frequently  think  with  pleasure  of  our  joint  voyage  through 
the  Black  Sea. 

Do  you  remember  our  visit  to  the  bookstore  in  Odessa 
where  you  asked  for  my  u  Naturliche  Schopfungsgeschichte  " 
and  the  bookseller  answered  in  consternation:  "Such frightful 
books  we  do  not  keep  ;  that  would  be  poison  !  "  Of  this  "  fright- 
ful poison  "  the  tenth  edition  has  now  appeared  (in  36  years — 
1868).  Besides  I  am  now  working  very  piously  and  harmlessly 
on  "The  Art  Forms  of  Nature."  I  am  busy  with  the  last  three 
numbers  (Plates  71  to  100). 

That  you  have  identified  my  Monism  with  the  Pantheism  of 
the  holy  St.  Aiigustine  has  greatly  moved  me  ; — this  has  already 
occurred  frequently  ! — I  hope  that  at  the  feast  which  will  be 
given  in  New  York  on  the  23d  of  April  I  shall  come  into  the 
best  odor  with  your  religious  comrades.  Perhaps  I  shall  win  in 
this  way  a  warm  nook  in  "  Heaven  " — it  is  to  be  hoped  in  your 
vicinity  !  Give,  I  beg  you,  to  the  "  pious  brethren  in  Christ  "  my 
highest  blessing;. 

With  heartiest  greetings  and  best  wishes, 

Your  old 


ERNST    HAECKEL 


Professor  Dr.  Persifor  Frazer 
928  Spruce  Street 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 
N.  Amer. 


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